Big Ben heads to the home of the original Big Ben

Long before Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger picked up the nickname “Big Ben,” there was a large clock tower just off the Thames River in London that had a bell that went by the same name.

Now the two Big Bens are coming together in advance of the Steelers’ visit to Wembley Stadium to take on the Vikings during the 2013 season. Roethlisberger will be in the United Kingdom this week to promote that game as well as remind Londoners about why we’re celebrating Independence Day this Thursday.

Mostly he’ll be there to promote the game, though. Roethlisberger will hold a forum Tuesday with 30 fans selected to ask him questions about his career, playing in London and more. The fans have to be members of the Union Jax, the UK fan club for the Jaguars that NFLUK launched to celebrate Jacksonville’s commitment to playing games in the UK for the next four seasons.

With a new member of the royal family coming any day now, Roethlisberger might also want to leave a few boxes of Terrible Towels at Buckingham Palace for Prince William. You can never have enough towels on hands with a newborn in the house, so you might as well take advantage of that by marketing the team to a potential new fan at the same time.

As a UK die hard Broncos fan I was against the whole London franchise proposal for a long time but the more I thought about it the more I fell in love with the idea
I stuck up my latest blog, discussing the proposal and I would love any feedback. Give the ol name a click, ye football starved.

I hate the fact the NFL feels the need to play games in dirty old London. A game between the best RB in the game and one of the best running defenses should not be played in a foreign country. I am sure there would be no problem selling this game out in Minn or PA. They have a Jaguars fan club, How much do they really follow the NFL?

Most people here don’t follow the NFL at all. But those of us who do follow it do so avidly and voraciously. Not a day goes by when I’m not going online first thing to find even the smallest bit of football news to get me through the long off-season.

I agree, it’s a shame for US fans to have games taken away from you. It is your game after all.

Oh I say chaps, please be so good as to lock up your young birds for the occasion. We wouldn’t want there to be a terrible diplomatic entanglement, such as happened oh, these many years ago with that Chamberlain fellow who hied across the Channel.

Hi all,
I am a UK Steelers fan and will be going to the forum Tomorrow ( Tuesday 2nd ) cannot wait
as these chances do not come round to often for us Brits!!. We are very lucky to have games played over here and also to be able to get close with forums etc, Thank you NFL.
Will be going to both games so well pleased.
Richard.

Joemontanaflacco says:
Jul 1, 2013 11:43 AM
The British press is going to eat him alive. They couldn’t care less about his wobbly checkdowns and desperate hail marys.

6 46 But you do as evidenced by your trolling every steeler thread. How is you know so much about the British Press….I got it, as chief troll you are all knowing. You need to say a coupe of hail rays for our sorry soul.

The reason the Jaguars have 30+ fans in the UK is because Steelers fans who wanted to the chance to meet Ben had to sign up the the Jaguars fan club. It was a pathetically transparent marketing effort.